Connection Error
by Sanru
Summary: In hindsight, Donatello should have just gone into the dojo and avoided the unpleasant predicament in the sewers altogether. It may have prevented the Great Mop Attack in the very least.


Disclaimer: Just playing about in the sandbox like everyone else

Author Notes: Just another silly little one shot that needed to get off my desk so that I can focus on other projects. I have way to many things to write and not enough time to work on them. I almost wish there were two of me but that would just get too confusing.

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Connection Error

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**Connecting…connecting…connecting…**

Fingers drummed impatiently on the arm of his chair as he stared at the screen before himself with a frown plastered on his face. He was use to having connection issue with the network server that he had set up throughout the lair, after all most of his server had been made out of parts he had scavenged from the local dump and it was prone to the occasionally hiccup, but this was an all new high in annoyance. The only good thing was that this issue only seemed to be on the recreational server. At least it wasn't on his private server that governed the majority of his research notes, experiments, diagrams and, by far the most important, the lairs security systems. If this was because of one of those free for download ad games that he had told Mikey not to get, he was going to kill him.

**Connecting…connecting…connecting…**

Of course, had it been Mikey, he would still be able to connect online without the headache he was developing. Mikey couldn't have been the one to do this, mostly because Donatello had locked Mikey and everyone else in his technologically illiterate family out from gaining access to the system preferences a long time ago. Everything he had tried to reconnect the server always came up with an error or it would just get caught in an infinite loop like it was doing now. With a sigh he stood up, grabbed his bo and tucked it into its holster as he began to follow the cable. This issue obviously wasn't in the software and he really wasn't looking forward to rerunning the cabling throughout the lair. Checking the connection in the back of the server to make sure it wasn't a simple issue of an unplugged cord (as embarrassing as that would be it would also be welcomed at this point) he then began to follow the server line up the wall and across the ceiling of his lab. Following the trail of the wire out into the main room, he walked past a bored looking Mikey and Raph who were sitting listlessly on the couch staring at the static the television was broadcasting while waiting for Don to fix the cable. They looked up briefly from their vigil to stare moodily at the passing resident technogeek before returning their attention to the blank screen.

The doors to the dojo were closed so Donatello headed for the entrance of the lair. It wouldn't do him any good to interrupt Leo in his extra practice only to find out that there as nothing wrong with the line in there. The longer he could put off dealing with an impatience Leo, tapping his foot as Don examined the line in the dojo the better. Maybe if he put it off long enough, Leo would actually be done and in his room for his meditation. Donatello glanced at his watch and sighed, he could be meticulous but wasting an hour going over the line would be a bit much even for him. Hopefully, waiting until Leo was mostly done would mean his brother wouldn't be to impatient.

He stepped outside of the lair and briefly shivered as the cold, dankness of the sewer drove away the warm, dry comfort that was always in the lair. It was a common reaction and he barely thought of it except for absent mindedly rubbing at one of his arms while his eyes picked out a two inch pipe concealed in a mass of other pipes running along the sewer's ceiling with practiced ease. There didn't appear to be any kind of problem with where the pipe connected to the wall, letting the cable run into the lair, so Donatello began to back track it towards where he had spliced it into the feed.

The sewers were mostly quiet, with the occasional drip here and he echo of the subway as cars rocketed through the tunnels, but he paid no attention to the common sound around him as he walked. His eyes may have been focused on the pipe above him but Donatello easily side stepped debris in the tunnel and some of the larger puddles of unknown liquid that he didn't even want to think what they might consist of. It was one of those riddles that was always present but no one really wanted to know the answer too, like what exactly did Raph put in his chili.

Some things were better off not known.

After wandering along the line Donatello came to the conclusion that there was only one part of the line that could possibly be damage. Because of the amount of maintenance workers near one of the manholes, he had tucked the line's pipe back behind a rather large bundle of other pipes so that it was harder to notice. However, that meant that Donatello couldn't just look at the pipe standing on the floor of the sewer, he had to go up to it.

With a sigh, Donatello took several running steps and ran up the wall, grabbing a hold of two of the pipes' hangers and braced a foot against a vertical pipe running along the wall next to him. With a small grunt of effort, he pulled himself up and craned his head forward enough to examine the completely undamaged pipe. "Frag," he muttered to himself as he leaned back and hopped down to the floor again, thinking over his current problem and not paying attention to his location. It didn't even occur to him that his bo staff was too close to the vertical pipes globe valve until his felt it kick up in it holster and jerk him out of his thoughts.

For a moment he stood shock still before huffing and rolling his eyes at himself. Reaching around and undoing the clasps that held his bo staff, Donatello turned to find that his staff had wedged itself into the globe valve's wheel. "Really?" he asked his bo before heaving another sigh and pulling on his staff to see how jammed in the wheel it was.

After several gentle tugs with one hand, Don moved up to yanking on the bo with both hands while trying to shift it to several different directions. He grunted with exertion as he hauled on the bo as strong as he could but it still refused to budge. Standing back and looking over the problem for a moment Don glared at his bo. Don couldn't see any reason as why to bo was jammed so tight. Grumbling in a rare bout anger, Donatello grabbed his staff, braced his foot against the pipe and yanked as hard as he could.

Whether he had loosened the bo up on his series of past attempts or the added leverage of his leg, he didn't know but the bo slipped free suddenly. Donatello made a shocked noise as he suddenly found himself flying backwards, landing with a splash on the floor of the sewer. He sputtered, thrashing slightly as he struggled to stand and spit whatever had gotten into his mouth out.

As he stood there he finally realized what it was that he had just landed in. It was one of the puddles filled with the unknown liquids. What was even worst was that it had been in his mouth. _In his mouth_! Donatello spit again as if that would make any difference but the taste that he was trying hard not to think about was still there. He made a sound of disgust as he shuddered, tucking his bo back into its holster, mentally already going over his medical records and trying to remember if all his shots were up to date.

And he didn't want to know what was that slimy thing was sliding down his back under his shell.

With nothing else to do and wanting to get as far away from the puddles of indiscernible liquid, Donatello hurried back to the lair with the occasionally shiver and slip. He wiped ineffectively at the slime that was on his arms as he waited for the door to the lair to open. There was only one place left and that was in the dojo. He marched over there, ignoring Raph as he asked Mikey, "What the frag is that? Did you just fart?"

Don stomped through the dojo's doors, ignoring Leo as he messed up his current stance and glared at him. "Don, do you mind?" the aforementioned turtle paid no mind to his oldest brother, sighing Leo returned to his kata. Don walked into the room, eyes glued on the cable as it threaded its way through the ceiling of the dojo, high out of the reach of any weapons they had. At least that was what he had thought but right there, almost dead center in the dojo, Don could see a clean cut right through the center of his cable, the two ends daggling down between two hangers.

Staring blankly at the wire, trying to figure out how it was cut and why would someone cut it, Don was distracted from his thoughts by a flash of silver spinning up high before falling back down. He turned his head in time to see Leonardo catch his sword which he had previously sent spinning up into the air. Dumbfounded at to what his brother was up to, Don said, "Leo, what are you doing?"

Leo went through several more moves which ended with him crouched on the mats before rising to address his younger sibling. "Practice." He said as if it was the answers to all of life's questions.

"But what is with the twirling your sword up into the rafters?" Don said suddenly having an idea of what happened to the cable.

"Casey mentioned baton twirlers and it got me into thinking that it would be a great distraction technique," Leo said looking even more confused as to why his younger and most non-violent brother was looking like he was tempted in suddenly becoming even more violent than Raphael on a bad night. "Why? Is something wrong with that?"

Donatello slowly pointed toward the ground at his feet, "And were, pray tell, you doing that 'twirling' over here earlier." Leonardo nodded and that was all it took for Donatello's frayed patience to snap. The two hours of his day wasted on trying to get the server reconnected followed by an unexpected plunge into whatever was in that puddle and, in some place still clinging to his skin, was enough to send Donatello's blood boiling.

Then Leonardo sealed his fate but suddenly wrinkling his nose and asking, "What's that smell?"

When questioned later over exactly what had happened, all Raphael and Michelangelo could say was there was a suddenly explosion of yelling from the dojo, mostly from Don if the large words that neither of them fully understood the meaning of meant anything. Leo then came running out of the dojo without his swords and a very irate looking Don on his heels attempting to whack him over the head with the dojo's mop even though he had his bo staff. Leonardo ran towards the kitchen and proceeded to run around the table, keeping the piece of furniture between him and Don, as he tried to calm his irate brother down and occasionally dodge the long reach of the mop as it swung at his face. Don was yelling things about 'extra work', 'wasted time' and the 'inconsequential thoughts of certain individuals' as he continued trying to beat his older brother senseless.

"Do you think we should stop them?" Mikey asked Raph after watching the proceeding for a few minutes. "The monster movie marathon is going to start soon."

"Mikey," Raph said as he rearranged himself on the couch to watch the ensuing events beginning to unfold in the kitchen. "This is a thousand times better than any monster destroying Tokyo could ever be."

"Hey, Raph, that weird smell is back. You think it's Don?"

"…I'm not asking him while he's got that mop."


End file.
